Re: Alert Ready

That's how I saw it on the 8300. I believe Nextboxes used the whole lower half of the screen, including an Exit option. It supposedly even affected Netflix, a total of 40-50 million people, in and neigbouring Ontario.

Re: Alert Ready

Other providers roll out the amber alerts differently, and many provide an escape button.

Only ROGERS felt the need to scare everyone with a loud screech....and set up the process so that viewers cannot escape from the warning if they have an older set-top box.

Find a new way to roll out the warning that's less obtrusive ..... like on all the channels I watched OTA after I was forced to shut off my rogers box because you made viewing TV during that hour impossible.

Quit passing the buck Rogers and accept your role in the total screw-up and abuse of an emergency broadcast system.

Re: Alert Ready

I've only heard what I did on my 8300 and don't know what people using other providers heard, but it sure was loud and annoying. But if this was a real red alert, like for an environmental disaster or terrorist attack, following protocol, then it's probably appropriate that you heard it all over the house, not just sitting in front of the TV. They screwed up on this one because it was just an amber alert and should have been a crawl across the bottom of the screen.

Reading news reports, the alarm sound was apparently different for different BDUs, but still annoying. As for the screen, I got a red banner at the top of the screen, Nextbox users got the alert and cancel windows covering the bottom half of the screen and I saw pictures of the whole screen red from other providers. I think everybody learned something.

Re: Alert Ready

Hi -- yes, I agree....if this was a true emergency as in a natural disaster or nuclear attack....the screech would be warranted.

But, it was neither of those two things which is why Rogers needs to update the firmware on 8300's for example to allow us to exit the warning once we've acknowledged it.

When you get over-excited OPP officers abusing a Province Wide emergency broadcast system, and a system which doesn't allow viewers to partially disable it when alerts are of the variety we say from Orillia OPP.....

911 will get flooded with calls again. Imagine if this had happened during the Super Bowl for example.....the 911 system would crash under the volume of complaints.

Sometimes common sense is required and common sense dictates that the system Rogers has in place needs tweeking. Blame-shifting to the CRTC isn't solving the issue.

Re: Alert Ready

For sure the system broke down. I'm not sure it was the OPP alone who deployed the red alert, but a chain of events with inadequate checks. I bet there were a lot of angry words and red faces in various board rooms across Ontario on Monday morning. Fortunately we don't have a Minister of Global Affairs and Climate Change in charge of a big red button to launch a nuclear missile.

Re: Alert Ready

"Orillia OPP Detachment Commander Inspector Pat Morris admits the alert was an annoyance for some but says they did not have a lot of time to find the missing boy.

He says people can travel a long way in a short period of time and when the Amber Alert was last used in 2009, the child and abductor were found three hours from where the initial incident took place.

Morris says the Amber Alert was altered by the National Alert and Aggregation and Dissemination (NAAD) system and not by the OPP or other law enforcement.

He says it was altered to better get people's attention and it is reviewed on a regular basis.

Morris says in the end they were successful in making sure the boy was safe."

So they supposedly issued an Amber Alert and the third party NAAD system turned it into a Red Alert. But the OPP was quite okay with that, bonus! But it's the OPP that couldn't put two and two together and connect the missing report to the parents picking up the kid while he was throwing a tantrum. However, kudos to the OPP for taking the fall instead of blaming the NAAD, whose fault it really was. What do the cops care anyway when they have to work Sunday night, making $100,000 a year, while we peons are watching TV.

Re: Alert Ready

Interestingly.. my wife went to watch a recording of.. Quantico i think it was? Was recording at the time of the alert.. on CTV i beleive it was?

Went to play it back.. No issues on OTHER recordings at that time.. as the NB3 did it as the OVERLAY.But that channel... the channel ITSELF.. broadcast the alert over the station feed itself..No way to clear, etc

Re: Alert Ready

Hi Gdkitty, My wife recorded that show too funny enough and she played back the recording and there it was, the Amber alert, embedded into the TV broadcast. I don't want to blame the TV providers such as Rogers or Bell for this, I think there is a good reason why it was embedded into the feed, it was done by the TV Channel itself, because the TV channels are also mandated to send the Amber Alerts to viewers who watch the programs via Antenna and don't use any type of Set Top Box. so injecting it into the feed is probably the only way possible to do this and since its already in the feed, the same feed gets sent to the TV BDU's such as Rogers, Bell, Shaw, etc, and they re-distribute their feed, and put their OWN Amber alert as an overlay on whatever channel you are watching. They have no way of knowing if the TV channel has done it already and are also required to do it via the CRTC Law. Yes it kind of sucks that it gets embedded into your recording but as long as the little boy was safe and not in any danger then that is good enough for me to Accept this minor inconvenience instead of complain about it